ZBrink

I have someone coming to look at my car for a possible sale and the hood will not pop. Any quick way to get it to pop??? The lever under the dash is pulling but I here nothing and nothing is happening!!

CREWZIN

Sounds like you might have snapped the cable. if by chance you haven't, have someone push down then pull up on the corner of the hood while you pull on the handle. Good luck.

Jet-Jock

I believe you can see the two cables pulling if you crawl in there and look up as the handle is exercised. That way you can tell if for certain the cables are working. If slack has occurred you can pull the knee panel and then you'll have access to the cables. You can pull them with a pair of needle nose pliers.

If no luck there is a tool that can be inserted between the forward door opening and the hood latch assembly and rotate it to push inward on the latches. I had a members vette here at my house once and his got stuck. We could not make the tool work, so we used the pulling of cables via pliers trick.

Someone will see this with the link to the tool. Its like a rod about 30 some inches long with bends at each end going opposite directions.

ZBrink

Okay I got under the dash and looked. This is what I saw:

I don't believe the cables have snapped. On the latch under the dash, the ends of the 2 plastic wires that encase the cables have popped out of their retainers. I cannot seem to get them to pop back into their retainers due to a lack of slack or give.

I need advice on how to get them back in but I think most importantly right now is to get the hood open. Any advice? Please chime in.

ZBrink

Okay, I am going to try and pull the cables. Do I need to pull each one with it's own pair of pliers at the same time?

Jet-Jock

Yes just pull one then the other. It'd be helpful to have someone lift that corner at the same time.

Remove the knee pad and you'll have access.

Good luck.

jabez

Your hood may be just mis-aligned. Push down on both sides of the hood where the cables are and pull lever again.

zoro

You need to make a hood tool. This is what it looks like

http://www.madvet.com/shop?frame=3.948

Then you open the door and run that under the front fender to hook the release lever and twist the rod to move the lever toward the engine.
The end that hooks the release lever is about an inch long, the rod is 18 inches and the handle is 4 inches. Mark a spot 13 inches from the hook end and when that mark is beside the corner of the windshield molding the hook should be at the right distance to the release lever.
It is a lot easier to use if you see what it looks like with the hood open but this does work.

Blownfuel1

Well, if the cables aren't broke, pulling them with pliers should get your hood open (either one at a time or together, if you do them one at a time, the second one may be kinda hard since the other one being popped could put a bind on the hood. If so, have someone push down on the still latched corner and it should pop). Once the hood is popped, you'll be able to have someone push the latch open, which should get you enough play to re-connect the other ends of the cables.

ZBrink

I was able to get the hood to pop by pulling both cables seperately with needle nose pliers. Now I need to fix the latch. Where do I have someone push exactly in order to give me enough slack to reconnect the end of the cable back to the latch? Do they push somewhere under the hood of the car or under the dash where I am working?

CMYC4GO

You should have enough slack with the hood up

ZBrink

Sweet! Is that goofy that I am excited to actually go home and see if I can fix this thing?

Jet-Jock

Yep.... JK

There are threaded adjuster to remove or provide the proper tension right at the latch point where the cable connects to the lever mechanism.

Yours is not unique, that is the same problem I saw on another members vette, except on theirs the previous owner stuck a piece of wood near the cable attach points at the handle. Really stupid fix. So we pulled the wood out and attached them and corrected the tension to fix it.

LSUgoTIGER

you never know what you'll find on used cars eh Lani? haha

Jet-Jock

True, surprised the heck out of me. So how's it going down south? Vette running ok?

LSUgoTIGER

well from reading some recent posts my latest suspicions are leaning towards possibly needing new U-Joints......a month or so back, I was hearing some terrible noises....they all sound like what people here have recently described to be U-Joints going out......but those noises have gone away now..........so I don't know......other than that...everything is good I guess. I drove up to sarasota and back the other night though and at 75mph and up I had a steady vibration....felt like the whole car was vibrating....steering wheel...seats....maybe that has something to do with U-Joints?